Adventures of a Young Shugena
by FlamingWolf
Summary: Asahina Chieko is assigned to the retinue of a diplomat for the Crane Clan. She learns how to use her powers despite a seemingly crippling disability- a shugenja who cannot read her spell scrolls...
1. Chapter 1

Chieko sat outside her rooms, wondering if this was how it would be from now on. She was honored to be assigned to the delegation going to Kyuden Ikoma. She truly was. But now her new servant had banished her from her own room while he packed for her, and Chieko wondered if everything would be done for her from now on.

She was blind, not helpless.

Not that he had much to pack for her. Chieko, like many Asahina at the Temple of the Morning Sun, lived like a monk, with only the minimum of possessions that the Crane clan deemed necessary.

The truth was, even Chieko doubted she was ready to travel to Kyuden Ikoma as a member of the delegation. Since she could not read her prayer scrolls, she had to laboriously memorize when she heard the others reciting them. She had only mastered the most basic spells.

A cynical part of her had already realized that she wasn't intended to be a shugenja. She was intended to sit in the corner folding origami into shapes she had never seen, while others exclaimed, "Why, what a lovely swan! And so incredible, considering..." They would break off awkwardly and hasten on to other conversations. And she was to listen to those conversations.

She was a spy. A pitiable, harmless little spy in the corner.

This was not what she had intended. She had been born with the ability to understand the spirits of the world around her, and she had been trying to cultivate that power ever since. And now she would serve the Crane Clan in such a manner.

She turned as she felt footsteps behind her on the wooden floor of the temple and rose, facing her servant. She could hear his clothing rustle as he bowed.

"Is everything ready?" She asked.

"Yes, sama."

"Then let us be on our way," She suggested, hiding her emotions of the transient moment. _I am a samurai. I will not dishonor my family. I will do as my lords ask. And this they ask: for me to leave the only home I have ever known. If I ever return, someone else will live in these rooms and they will be mine no longer- they were never mine to begin with. I was merely honored to be allowed to stay in them._

_I am a samurai. I have no home._


	2. Chapter 2

It was raining when Chieko was led down to the docks. Everything was soaked in moments, and she was grateful that her scroll satchel was water safe. Everything was stored in record time, and she was ensconced below deck.

Then, the boat began to move.

In no time, Chieko was violently, violently ill.

"Seasickness," A Mantis sailor said succinctly when her servant asked if there was a doctor for the young shugenja. "She'll get over it. She might want some fresh air."

When this was relayed to Chieko, she smiled. "Perhaps I might, after all." She said. "I have never experienced rain at sea."

She regretted her decision when she came out on deck. Her nose was instantly assaulted by the smell of the rain, as well as dead fish, tar, and other noxious odors she couldn't immediately name. She gagged and held the sleeve of her kimono over her nose. From what she could tell, there was a lot of noise and bustle.

Then, as things quieted, the horrible smells- except for the tar and rain- faded away, to be overlaid with the fresh scent of the sea, which she had grown up with, since Shinden Asahina lay along the shore. She breathed deeply and eagerly, still wishing for that horrible, dizzy rocking to go away.

But as the wind took over, Chieko felt it rushing around her body, up her sleeves, through her hair. She had never felt the air kami so strongly and she laughed aloud.

Once someone had allowed her to touch their pet bird while trying to explain flight to her. Now, she turned to her servant with a broad smile and asked, "Are we flying? Are we like birds?"

There was silence for a moment, and then her servant said, "No, sama, the boat is pushed by the wind across the ocean, but we are not flying."

Chieko shook her head. Surely, surely, this was what birds felt in the sky, even if the boat was still on the surface of the water. Peasants truly were dullards to not have even that much imagination.

This was as close to flying as she was ever likely to get.

Several days later, out at sea (though Chieko was told they were within sight of the Crane coast, which they were following), Chieko was more or less used to the new routine of the boat. She was still very seasick, but kept to the advice of the Mantis sailors by remaining on deck as much as possible. After all, they knew better than she did. Her servant kept trying to insist on her staying below, out of sight of the sailors, and where she presumably wouldn't catch cold.

She was sitting on a coil of rope near the back of the boat when she heard a peculiar wailing sound. There was a sudden bustling around her. She heard someone mutter, "It's the Weeping Woman!"

Chieko wasn't an expert on ghosts, but she did know the basics. Her fingers made the gestures of purification, even as her mind quested outwards, trying to find something in the elements that was unusual.

Perhaps because she didn't know the ocean as well as she knew the area around Shinden Asahina, she found nothing.

_I wanted to show my skill and be praised. Of course I found nothing,_ She thought. _To be Crane is to create perfection. The art is what matters, not the artist._

She sighed, took a deep breath, and once more cast her awareness into the wind. A moment later, she had found the spirit- now following the ship as it recognized the presence of humans and the mortal world.

_How can I help ease your sorrow?_ She asked now that she recognized the nature of the spirit: a deceased woman, a lost spirit trapped in Ningen-do by her deep sorrow.

_My husband! Where is my husband? Has he abandoned me? Has he abandoned the children? Why would he not send word? Where is my husband?_ The spirit screamed. _The pain! It's worse! Something is wrong with the baby!_

_What is your husband's name and where did he say he was going?_ Chieko asked, shocked by the pain the spirit was in- pain the body had not felt in quite a long time. Was having a baby really such a terrible ordeal? Also, she felt the drain that said her _qi_ wouldn't have the strength to continue on much longer.

_Goro! Curse his eyes, Goro!_ The woman shrieked. _He said he was going as crew on the White Chrysanthemum!_

Chieko shook her head and walked towards a group of whispering sailors she could hear nearby. "Excuse me," She said politely, bowing. "The spirit says she is seeking a sailor named Goro on the White Chrysanthemum."

There was more whispering, some of it prayers and some of it quite blasphemous. One voice, cracked with age, said, "I heard of it, sama. The White Chrysanthemum was a courier ship that sank at the end of the 800's sometime. It was said to be going to some far off island that the Tortoise Clan had settled. It was never heard from again. 's why no one in my family will sail with the Tortoise, sama. One of my ancestor's cousins was aboard."

"Thank you, sailor-san," Chieko said with a slight bow towards the voice. As she walked back towards where she had been speaking to the ghost, she heard the man saying,

"Did you see that? The priestess bowed to me. Me! She said thank you and called me 'san'!"

_Spirit, I spoke with a wise old man on this ship. He says that the White Chrysanthemum went down in the waters many long years ago. Your husband probably meant to return to you. He was lost at sea._

The spirit wailed anew.

_Spirit, I am a shugenja,_ Chieko said. _When I arrive at Kyuden Doji, I will light incense for your husband to Suitengu. I will light incense for you. Please, go to your rest. Suitengu will see your husband to Meido. May you be reunited._

She clapped twice. With a final wail, she felt the spirit turn and leave the area, hopefully forever. She slumped with exhaustion.

"She did it!" A sailor shouted. "The shugenja sent the spirit away!"

Tired, Chieko went below. The fishy smell of the hold was more than worth being able to stretch out for a while.

It occured to her that she had no idea where her hovering manservant could have gone. _Why are peasants terrified of shugenja?_ She wondered. _The kami do such wonderful things to help them, and they flee at the first sign of a spirit!_


End file.
